What is Language?

Language is not just speaking. It is the body movements, facial expressions, American Sign Language, written language, and other sounds we make. Imagine not being able to communicate with someone using any of these ways, can you do it? I know I can't.

For this assignment, I was asked to conduct an experiment in which for 15 minutes, I was in a conversation with someone else, but I was not allowed to use ant kind of language. Personally, I found the experiment extremely difficult. I was about 5 minutes in and I found myself having to bite my tongue in order to not talk. The person I was talking to knew that I was conducting the experiment, but even she didn't like it. I found my partner looking around for things to talk about because she wasn't sure what to talk about. After about 7 minutes, she was silent for a bit but then decided to tell me about her day. After the 15 minutes were up, she was so happy that I can talk. According to her, my absence of communication made her feel that whatever she was talking about was uninteresting to me and that I seemed like I didn't want to hear about it any more. If my partner and I represented different cultures, then I definitely think the talking culture has the advantage of communicating complex ideas. Because they can speak, they can introduce their culture and allow whatever they want to be known delivered to this other culture. I feel that in our culture, the individuals who are only able to speak in sign language might have the most difficulty in communication because not many people are familiar with this language and therefore they would have a much more difficult time expressing their feelings and ideas. In a way however, it might also make the people who do not sign feel very helpless because the other person might think they are not interested and misjudgments can occur, like how my friend misjudged how I was feeling about her stories. 

For the second part of the experiment, I was allowed spoken language, but no physical language. Although I was able to last the whole 15 minutes of using only speech, It was extremely difficult. I felt that I sounded boring with no emotions and I had to constantly remind myself to not change my tone of voice and to not use my hands. Once again, my partner felt that she was talking to someone who was very uninterested and according to her, she felt "stupid". In the beginning however, she couldn't help but laugh because she was used to me always using hand gestures while speaking. This experiment shows that body movements and facial expressions are sometimes more significant in communicating what we want to be communicated better than spoken language. They show motions such as happiness, anger, sadness, especially using different tones of voice. Body language has becomes a part of our daily language and communication that being able to read such language is crucial to our lives. However, being able to read the language is different for each person. While some people can read most body languages, others are only able to read some. The benefit of being able to read it is obviously being able to communicate in a much deeper way. You can hear the emotions and see them without having to hear all the words. Therefore, I can not exactly describe conditions where it is more beneficial to not be able to read body language. 

I think that if I was permitted to use written language, it would not have made a significant difference in difficulty. The conversation was a very casual conversation while spending time with my friend. In order for me to use written language, it would mean that I have a paper and pen, or a computer where I can write or type what was actually going on in my head. Such behavior is not part of a natural conversation and it does not occur often. However, it is important to be able to communicate using written language. Written language can be chatting on the computer, sending a letter to a dear friend, or sending a business email. All of the ways that written language has been used for are important in our lives today and without it, there would definitely be some lack of communication. The use of written language has made room for the spread of ideas throughout the world as people are publishing their ideas on the web with the rest of the world having access to them. People seek such written language on the web to solve problems in their lives and without the ability of written language, it would be much more difficult to have the spread of the ideas. 

The Population of Nacerima

After reading the article by Horace Miner, the five words to describe the Nacerima culture are:
1. Shallow

I say they are shallow because they believe that having their shrines is substitution for beauty. According to Miner, the main belief of the culture is that the human body is ugly, and is only meant to become sick. I believe that the human body is beautiful in every way possible and it is a blessing from God that it exists. No amount of money or shrines will substitute for the true beauty of the human body.

2. Wealth-seeking

The Nacerima culture is a market economy, where according to Miner, "much of the people's time is devoted to economic pursuits". While it is normal for people to seek wealth and financial stability, dedication of time to the economy is a bit strange. To them, however, it is nothing to be looked down upon and to be ashamed of. The reason to this believe of theirs is because they feel like they need money and to be wealthy in order to cover up the ugliness of their bodies.

3.  Superstitious

The Nacerima culture has a belief that there is a connection between the rituals of the mouth and social relationships. According to Miner, "were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they
believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert
them, and their lovers reject them". Of course, that is a very superstitious belief. In fact, it could be seen as a strange believe as well. However, this could be used to have the need for the "holy-mouth-men" which relates back to gaining as many shrines as possible. The holy mouth men require something in return for their services which are often sought by the people of Nacerima.

4. Conservative

This culture could be seen as very conservative. According to the article by Miner, the people of this culture don't expose their body for unnecessary reasons. In the article, it is explained that the only time they will get rid of their clothes is under the secrecy of their own household and their own shrine. Because of that, when they have to expose their bodies when entering the temple to be "healed", they are very uncomfortable and the females feel victimized of possible sexual assault.

5. Ritual-based

I say this because after reading the article, I felt as if there is a ritual for everything that they consider to be wrong. One of the most interesting ritual I read about is the one to make fat people thin and thin people fat. Another ritual is to get rid of the "devils" that they believe mothers put in the children. While these rituals are normal to them, to an outside person reading or seeing such rituals would be somewhat in disbelief.

Part B:
While it didn't cross my mind in the beginning that Miner was actually speaking about Americans, I figured it out at the end and that is when I went back and analyzed it based on the observation.

1) I am from another country. I was born in Jordan and I have been living here for the past eight years. Within those eight years, I have been exposed to the American culture. Now that I know that this was about the American culture, I would still keep my answers the same. I feel as my answers do describe the typical American; that is not to say it with a negative connotation.
2) All of the words that were said before are free of bias. While I was answering the task of the first blog, I was only responding to what I read, but not what I thought at the end. If I had known that it was about the American culture, then a bit of biased opinions might have risen.
3) Again, none of the words chosen above had any bias to them
4) I think it is extremely important to describe other cultures without any bias. I believe so because each person is different and hold different values and therefore, having bias in their writing about other culture does not really provide the truth about the culture. I think that it is very difficult to avoid bias as a Culture Anthropologist because they know from the beginning which culture they analyze. If they were in my position where I didn't know what culture I was reading and commenting on, then it would be a lot easier to avoid bias.